Couple Culture in Korea

Couple Culture in Korea

Ok, so this was a ridiculously silly TL;DR, and we spent most of it giggling with each other rather than actually providing useful information. But I think we did touch on some important things:

Between

We talked about this app a bit, and how popular it is here in Korea, but I don’t think that we mentioned that this app is supposedly made in Korea as well. Cool! You can read more about it here. And, no, we’re not paid by the company to promote it. We literally started jotting down our talking points for this TL;DR and then I remembered reading about this app in my tech news feed (because I read about tech news because I’m a dork) and it seemed relevant. Then we downloaded the app and started fiddling around with it.

While it’s cool to play with and has an interesting concept, I don’t really like having unnecessary apps on my devices, you know? I have iMessenger which sends messages just fine. Then I got Kakao. Facebook sends messages as well. So does email. Why another messaging app? I’m not sure. There’s a novelty to the concept, though, even though it’s a severely restricted messaging system. God why am I giving an app review? Point is: this is big in couple culture in Korea, so…there!

Christmas

The saddest time of year for foreigners in Korea, I’d say. Everyone we know living here really misses being back home with their families Christmas time. You know, since we’ve moved to Korea, we didn’t have any Christmases back home? Basically, we just get together with other friends and try to host Christmas parties and feel less homesick.

The point of this isn’t for you to awwww over us. The point is: in Korea, Christmas is date night. It’s not really a family oriented night, with family dinners and firewood and Christmas carols and Christmas cookies and traditional, family stuff. It’s a night for couples to go out. Couples go out on dinners and skating and skiing and stuff like that. But, even though we’ve been here for five years, we just can’t bring ourselves to thinking of Christmas that way.

Couple Hair

We didn’t talk about this in the video, but we’ve seen some examples of couples with the same hair colour. No pics to prove it, though. At first we thought it was a fluke thing, but I also remember seeing it in one of those “We Got Married” episodes a long time ago. I think it was with Crown J and his SUPER DEMANDING UNREASONABLE wife, whose music I just can’t enjoy anymore without thinking of how cruel she was. Maybe she was acting, I’m not sure. Point is, couples can dye their hair the same colour as well, to go with the whole “let’s show the world we’re a couple!” kinda thing.

D-Days

We don’t know what the D stands for in D-Day. We asked Soo Zee, and she doesn’t know either. Due Day? I’m not sure, but it’s supposedly used to describe the day you started dating. That’s not why I’m talking about it here, though. I’m just more amazed at how people know the amount of days in which they started dating. That’s intense. We never counted the days in which we’ve done…anything. Now it’s just by years. Before it used to be months, but never days! That’s a whole other metric system. Is it just a Korea thing? Like, Americans use Miles and the rest of the world uses Kilometers, is it the same that Korea counts days of dating while the rest of the world counts months and years? Guise? I don’t know.

That’s it for this week. Let us know what you think. I’m not even sure how to start a discussion about this because we were just too silly to be taken seriously. OH! And if you didn’t know the “Whip Your D*ck Out” reference, it’s from the Lonely Island, just in case you were looking at us like we’re crazy. Side note, did anyone notice this lovely button here? OOH YOU SHOULD CLICK IT (if you aren’t subscribed to us)!

Well, okay so I’m pretty sure that the “D” in D-Day is just used as a way to signify the importance of whatever day something is supposed to happen. In case anybody was wondering, D-Day was a term used and coined by the military. I don’t remember which one exactly, but it was for some war, maybe World War 2?

I think you guys being natural (as in, no pre-planning, not entirely scripted, no skits for the sake of skits) is when you’re at your best. It reminded me of the earlier days of Music Mondays. You guys were comical by being…you guys, lol. It’s refreshing.

Actually, she revealed that when they had an on-screen, her manager said the ratings went up. So she acted like a total b*tch for the sake of the show. I don’t think she’s really like that in real life though, coz I read that she still remain friends with Crown J. Although I must say, she has a bit of diva attitude.

Hi! I know someone mentioned it earlier, but in case anyone is interested I can explain about D-Day a little ^_^ Ok, so as Nina Johansson mentioned, D-Day comes from the Normandy Landings. D //probably// stands for “disembarkment” but, it was all a secretive thing so no one is actually sure. When I was in Year 8 I went on a school trip to france, and I visited the site of the landings, and so even today whenever says “D-day” I’m like “OH! ME SIR!! PICK ME!!” because I studied it for so long haha XD

Also, random interesting fact – the beach where the canadian forces landed on D-Day was called Juno Beach. I know that in the movie that Ellen Page (as Juno) says that she was named after a Greek Goddess, but I always wondered if Diablo Cody (who’s debut script was Juno, which is f***ing awesome) had known this fact.

The first D in D-Day actually stands for “Day”. It’s part of a military numbering system used for counting down and up from an important event. The day before a D-Day is D-1, read “D minus 1″ the day after a D-Day is D+1. D-Day is saying it is the Day of the event, and is not limited to use in Normandy, though that is the most well known use. The US military still uses D-Day counting for large training events. There is an identical system used that reads H-Hour.

Oh gawd the months and couple stuff… I remember when I first started dating my boyfriend I was REALLY confused because he counted days, and he was much more romantic than me. I loved the attention but was really confused when he came to me one day with a teddy bear for our “100 Day Anniversary”. I felt really bad I hadn’t gotten him anything.

It’s interesting how big couple culture is in Korea, where things are are created just for them. I feel like in America things aren’t really “made for couples”, you just do what you do and if you’re together and doing something than that’s that. I feel like Korea puts more of an emphasis on being a dating couple, then when you get married, I don’t know it kind of dies. While in America (or other Western countries, not sure) being married is more emphasized and catered to?

LOLOLOL at the mention of Ant Couple
They were actually my favorites
When I watched it, I hated Seo In Young too and thought she was a major bitch, haha but I also ended up realling liking Crown J for dealing with her and his sweet tendecies. They turned out to be my favorite couples because I felt the were the most realiest. At that time, I had been friends (and still are) with a couple of girls who were just like that to their boyfriends, but I was so impressed by how Crown J handled it, fake or not.
For a while though, i didn’t like Seo In Young either and just thought she was snobby and annoying and I couldn’t watch heros because of that, but then I listened to Anymore (Released last year) and because it turned out to be my favorite song from last year, I stopped hating her.

Haha, sorry for going on about Ant Couple, but seriously, they were one of the best of the best season of WGM

Speaking of couple apps in Korea, you guys should also check out Couple Vow. This is an app with a whole slew of “romantic”/creepy features.

1) One-on-one texting (similar to Between)
2) Countdowns and anniversaries (similar to Between)
3) “Community”: You can make a couple journal and add photos and notes, kind of like a little scrapbook
4) Route: Find the fastest path between you and your partner (creepy yet?)
5) Call history: Look at all of the numbers that have recently called your partner (it gets better)
6) SMS history: Read texts your partner has received if they receive a certain amount from the same person (keep it going!)
7) Current location: Shows where your partner currently is on a map (not done yet)
8) Location alarm: You can set up AS MANY ALARMS AS YOU WANT that will pop up on your phone whenever your partner reaches the location of your choice. Their house, your house, ex-girlfriend’s house…Junsu’s house?

Think of the possiblities. Do you want to be Creepy McCreeperson? This is how you do it.

Back when I went to school , D-Day was used as Dooms Day for the 13th of every month. Especialy if we had an exam on Friday 13th *lol* xD ( Come to think of it…When we had math exams, it was almost every time on Friday 13th ).

D-Day is a military term well known from WWII (D-Day/Normandy landings) that Americans use a lot now to talk about a really important or intimidating days (day of a test, an interview, a wedding). It can be sarcastic or lightly comical, etc. Apparently Korean speakers use it too, haven’t heard that yet here in Kangwondo…

Not so interesting fact, D-Day is a military term. When a mission is being planned, and they don’t want everyone to know when the mission is going down the mission start time is referred to as D-Day, H-Hour. This is why, in the U.S., June 6, 1944 is referred to as D-Day because it is the day the beaches of Normandy where stormed during WWII. The More You Know! *crappy 90’s NBC music playing*

I totally knew about those silly holidays on the 14th. A friend of mine started to date someone when we were in Korea and they celebrated White Day (barely, they’d been dating for like a week) and then May 14th she made him an origami flower…

Can you guise talk about popular job options among students in Korea? You guise used to be teachers, so what did your students wanted to be when they graduate? Is there a specific job that students are pressured to do? Thanks guise~

Also, do Korean girls assume — as Western girls did decades ago — that they’ll only work until they marry/have children? That any job they get after school is not a lifetime career, but a (hopefully) short phase? How do people view middle-aged single women who are still working; is it cool or inspiring that they are career women, or a pitiful waste that they don’t fit the traditional female roles?

You guys are so cute with your couple shirts. :3 I especially like the ones with the stick figures and the strings going from one shirt to the other. Simon’s so brave! One of these days I’m going to make a youtube account just so I can comment on your videos.

Also I think D-day originates from the military? Wikipedia says “D-Day is the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated.” I’ve always thought of it in a negative way, but I guess it can stand for any significant date.

Man, I haven’t laughed at one of your videos like this in quite some time – awesome hilarity! How much of that was even scripted? It seemed mostly off the cuff (if cut occasionally)- hence more relaxed – hence more awesomeness!

When my husband and I were newly wed, we were shopping for sweaters and the only one I could find that I liked that day was just like the one he bought. I bought it anyways (because I really needed a sweater!) but he made sure we never wore them at the same time unless we were alone – LOL! He’s very romantic all the time but too embarrassed to be cutesy in public. I think he would consider it okay in Korea though, since everyone is doing it. ^_^v

BTW, I see that you are driving for more subscribers again, here’s a hint: “If you want more subscribers, start treating it like a business and not a hobby when it comes to your biggest subscriber attractor – KMM”. I think that less than 50% of KMMs were on time (even by international date line standards) so far this year and 25% of them never even happened at all. I would bet that 80% of your twitter followers are purely to find out WTF happened to KMM each week since there is no other indicator. Life happens but most of the “surprises” this year were completely predictable and/or could have been worked around. Slow Korean youtube upload? Oh, that’s never happened before…..9_9 Nasties will forgive you but people just looking for a fix to cure the Monday Blues will just end up going somewhere else more reliable. I mean this kindly because I feel like you guise are getting out of control with your schedule lately and don’t realize the detrimental effects it can have. It won’t happen right away, but it will happen. Film stuff further in advance or keep a couple of special eps in the can for emergencies. Only do some segments like K-indie every second week but let people know the schedule in advance, don’t let people sit there waiting with no explanation, not everyone is on twitter. Also, you have a crew, use them. There is no reason why Leigh can’t upload videos, or SooZee can’t do a random quick film for filler from time to time. Even stringing together a bunch of random short vine videos of Spudgy or Meemers could be awesome if you have nothing else. Nasties like that you are there at upload time but I’m pretty sure that they would rather have the upload on time and you later instead of nothing until the next day. You are your brand but you’re holding on to it waaaaaaaayyyyyyy too tight and it’s obviously grown too large for you to handle now that you are no longer living like hermits. Don’t live like hermits again but get serious about treating it like a job – a fun and awesome job, but something where meeting deadlines matters. Make a schedule that allows leeway for issues and extra work that crop up. Get used to more standard hours for your own health and your work. Did you know that 10am is the most productive hour of the day? Did you realize that if you started work at 10am, 10 hours later will still only be 8pm? 14 hours will only be midnight? You could also use Nasties as a resource – a frikkin’ FREE resource. Why not encourage people to submit skit ideas in the comments on the kpop charts? Why not ask for more specific feedback now that you can poll in the comments? Why not have an artwork contest? An EYK video mashup/edit contest? Website design contest? Why not have delegates sell your swag at cons that you can’t attend? You strike me as smart people, don’t let the fun make you forget that. Don’t got to Australia and Europe for 2-3 months and have no KMMs in that time. No matter the vlogs, no or little KMMs for that long will really hurt your subscriber potential.

Sorry for the fewer comments lately, I end up wasting so much time waiting for the videos that I don’t have any time left to comment. Seriously.

Well……my internet tone isn’t so great sometimes :/ it was kindly meant. Just to be fair and back up what I said though, I challenge Simon and Martina to put out KMM before 5pm (Korean time) on Monday 3 weeks in a row. If they can, I will even create a youtube account and subscribe, just for them, and create a video apology of my shame. On top of that, if they do it and do not reach 500,000 subscribers one week later (after the 3 weeks in a row), I will personally make Martina a pretty dress (I have an etsy store) and sent it
along with a case of Ranch dressing for Simon. I was right about Candy Crush, you know that I am right about this, here is your incentive….. ;)

K since you giz have been talking about this for … Awhile…I thought hey, should see if Coco Curry is in Taiwan. Yup!! Guess where I am going today? Don’t let me down! oooo they have couple clothing here too.

LOL 2:00 you guys just went crazy
yea you don’t really see a lot of korean married people wear their rings lol, my parents don’t. but i think it’s bc they said they were too small now or something.
the days thing is so true. that is just too much to worry about, ain’t nobody got time fo dat.
also, i love when you guys have PDA on video, it’s so cute hahaha